Getting back on track

Much like the train company with which it shares its first name, Southern Health Foundation Trust has attracted a lot of criticism in the last few years.

But a new leadership team is now in place – completed by the appointment this autumn of Nick Broughton as the new chief executive.

He took up his position in November and has highlighted staff retention as one of his top priorities, in an interview with HSJ this week.

It will be a difficult task for Dr Broughton and the leadership team, particularly when it comes to newer staff as the most recent figures show one in four staff who leave the trust do so within two years of joining.

Much work is needed to rebuild confidence among the workforce in the new leadership team following the headlines that dogged previous chief exec Katrina Percy and chair Tim Smart. Dr Broughton said the damage to Southern’s brand does not help the recruitment challenge.

This is likely to involve Salford Royal’s electronic patient record, provided by Allscripts, being rolled out to Pennine’s hospitals from next year.

In 2011, Pennine upgraded its patient administration systems and added an application called Health Views, which pulls together information from different systems. This work was commissioned from Australian technology company iSoft, which was purchased that year by American firm CSC.